The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-12-22
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
suaining at a Gnat and Swallowing a
Camel.

comes Was Repealed.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 11.-To-night the Rev.
I. Dewitt TalmaRe, ID. D., preached at
the Tabernacle. this city, on ~Too Much
Ado About Small Things" His text was:
aye blind guides, which strain at gnat,
and swallow q camel" Matt. xiii, "a,
The eloquent preacher said;
A proVerb is compact wisdom, knowledge
in chunks, library in q sentence, the elec-
tricity of many clouds discharged into one
bolt, river put through a mill race. When
Christ quotes the proverb of the text he
means to set forth the ludicrous behavior
of those who make great bluster about
small sins and have no appreciation OF
great ones.
In my text a small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison-a
gnat and camel. You have in museum
or on the desert seen the latter, great
awkward, sprawling creature, with back
two stories high, and stomach having col
lection of reservoirs for desert travel, an
animal forbidden to the Jews as food, and
in many literatures entitled "the ship of the
desert" The gnat spoken of in the text is
in the grub form. 1t is born in pool or
pond, after few weeks becomes a chry-
sails, and then after a few days becomes
the gnat as we recognize it. But the insect
spoken of in the text is in its very smallest
shape, and it yet inhabits the water-fOr
my text is a misprint and ought to read
"strain out gnat."
Ny text shows you the prince of incon-
sistencies. A man after long observation
has formed the suspicion that in a cup of
water he is about to drink there is grub
or the gfandparent of q gnat. He goes
and gets sieve or strainer. He takes the
water and pours it through the sieve in the
broad light. He says, Il would rather do
anything almost than drink this water un-
til this larva be extirpated," This water is
brought under inquisition. The expert
ment is successful. The water rushes
through the sieve and leaves against the
side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then
the man carefully removes the insect and
drinks the water in placidity. But going
out one day, and hungry, he dev0urs a
"ship of the desert" the camel, which the
Jews were forbidden to eat. The gastron-
omer has no compunction of conscience.
He suffers from no indigestion. He puts
the lower jaw under the camers forefoot,
and his upper jaw over the hump Of the
camers back, and gives one swallow and
the dromedary disappears forever. He
strained out gnat and swallowed camel.
While Christ's audience were yet smilin g
at the appositeness and wit of his illus
tration-for smile they did in church, un-
less they were too stupid to understand
the hyperbole-Chris practically said to
them, "That is you" Punctilious about
small things; reckless about affairs Of great
magnitude. No subject ever withered un-
der surgeons knife more bitterly than
did the Pharisees under Christ's scalpel of
truth. As an anatomist will take hu-
man body to pieces and put them under a
microscope for examination, so Christ
finds his way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts il out and puts it under
the glass of inspection for oil generations
to examine. Those Pharisees thought
that Christ would fatter them and COM
| pliment them, and how they must have
writhed under the red-hot words as He
said, "Ye fools, ye whited sepulchers,
| We blind guides. which strain out gnat
| and swallow camel"
There are in our day great many gnats
| strained out and a great many camels
swallowed, and it is the object of this SER
mon to sketch few persons whe are eX-
| tensvely engaged in that business.
First: / remark that all those ministers
of the Gospel are photographed in the
| text who are very scrupulous about the
conventionalities of religion, but put no
particular stress upon matters of vast i'm
/ portance. Church services ought to be
grave and solemn. There is no room for
| frivolity religious convocation. But
| there are illustrations and there are hyper
boles like that of Christ in the text that
will irradiate with smiles any intelligent
auditory. There are men like those blind
| guides of the text who advocate only those
| things in religious service which draw the
corners of the mouth down, and denounce
all those things which have tendency to
draw the corners of the mouth up, and
these men will go to installations and to
| presbyteries and to conferences and 10 as
sociations, their pockets full of fine sieves
| 10 strain out the gnats, while in their own
churches at home every Sunday there are
fifty people sound asleep. They make
| their churches great dormitory, and their
somniferous sermons are cradle, and the
| drawled- out hymns lullaby, while some
wakeful soul in pew with her fan keep
the flies off unconscious persons approxi-
mate. Now, l say it is worse to sleep in
| church than to smile in church, for the
latter implies at least attention, while the
former implies the indifference OF
the hearers and the stupidity Of the
1 speaker. In old age, or from physical in-
| trinity, or from long watching with the
sick drowsiness will sometimes overpower
one; but when minister of the Gospel
| looks off upon an audience and finds
healthy and intelligent people struggling
with drowsiness, it is time for him to give
out the doxology or pronounce the bene
diction. The great fault with church
| services to-day is not too much vivacity,
but too much somnolence. The one is an
irritating gnat that may be easily strained
out; the other is great, sprawling, sleepy
eyed camel on the dry desert. In all our
| Sabbath schools, in all our Bible-c classes,
| in all our pulpits we need to brighten up
our religious messages with such Christ
| like vivacity as we find in the text.
l take down from my library the
biographies of ministers and writer's of
past ages, inspired and uninspired, who
have done the most to bring souls to Jesus
Christ, and l find that without single ex-
| ception they consecrated their wit and
their humor'to Christ. Elijah used it when
he advised tue Baa'ites, as they could
not make their god respond, telling them
! to call Louder as their god might be sound
asleep or gone a-hunting. Job used it
when he said to his self conceited COM
forters, "Wisdom will die with you.
Christ not only used it in the text, but
when He ironically complimented the putre-
fed Pharisees, saying, "The whole need
not a physician" and when by one word
He described the cunning Of Herod, saying,
$50 ye and tell that fox" Matthew Henrys
commentaries, from the first page to the
last, corruscated with humor as summer
clouds with heat lightning. John Bum
yan's writings are as full of humor as they
are Of saving truth, and their is not an
aged man here who has ever read "Pil-
that while reading it he smiled as often as
he wept. Chrysostom, George Herbert,
Robert South, John Wesley, George White-
field, Jeremy Taylor, Rowland Hill, Nettle-
ton, George G.. Finney, and all the men
of the past who greatly advanced the king